Michael McKay (left) joined the Moorhead business community this past August. He purchased Clark Auto Parts from brothers Bob and Doug Clark.
Clark Auto Parts in Moorhead changed ownership this past August as Michael McKay of McKay Auto Parts in Indianola purchased the NAPA Store.
McKay will keep the store open while renovating and updating the interior, he said.
Though one chapter ends and a new one begins, service and parts needs should continue to be met with NAPA quality and service.
Brothers Bob and Doug Clark owned the store with a unique “brotherly partnership” that ran smoothly beginning in 1977.
Health issues for Doug brought about the recent sale of the store.
The Clark family has long been a mainstay in the Moorhead community. Bob Clark worked as a mechanic for his dad for many years. As a mechanic, Bob had a need for a parts store.
He convinced his younger brother to run the store and he’d stay out of the business end of things while continuing his main job as a mechanic next door on the property.
That worked just fine for the brothers for more than four decades.
“I built it and put it in and he (Doug) operated it for 41 years,” Bob said. “My dad and I had the garage next door that we built in 1965.”
As a mechanic, Clark was traveling back and forth to Indianola for parts and had been dealing a lot with NAPA Stores so he had a need to open his own. He just didn’t want to run it.
He wanted to keep working as a mechanic.
“I really like the set up that NAPA had,” he said. “I never was a book man, but Doug was. He was good in school, but I was a more physical type and a mechanic like my dad. I always liked working on things and wasn’t interested in books but Doug was and I thought he would make a good parts man. He agreed to run and operate the store, and I’d do the shop.”
Michael McKay understood the NAPA and family dynamic of the store, and it was a natural fit to come to Moorhead. He started working at his late dad’s (Larry) NAPA store in Indianola when he was in high school in the late 1980s.
“We are looking to provide the same great service and keep all of the customers happy,” McKay said. “I always wanted to branch out and was looking toward Leland and Greenville. But I like the farm market, and Moorhead has a lot of strong farms over there and the college. There’s a lot of history in that business.”
The Moorhead store will still have familiar faces in full time employee Javin Beamon and part-time help along with Tony Lopez who will come over from the Indianola store. The former mechanic shop will be renovated for warehousing.
“We’ll be able to do drop ships between the two stores,” McKay said.
McKay’s dad had worked since the mid 1950s for Mr. Howell who owned seven Delta area NAPA stores. He purchased the Indianola store from Howell in 1984 that Michael now owns.
Clark “retired” from his mechanic business in 1984 and went to work at MDCC teaching in the automotive machinist program.
During the Clark brothers ownership, the store became a hub of activity for the whole “where the Southern Crosses the Yellow Dog” community and beyond. Clark pondered what he’ll miss most during his retirement from the NAPA business.
“The people and the farmers – we were all so needed and we had big fish frys and big cookouts. Moorhead has been a pretty tight community – that was the best part of it and being able to help each other. Back then if I needed to borrow a tractor or a disc, I’d tell a farmer and they’d bring it up to the shop to borrow. We were all pretty tight back then. We were all pretty good friends.”
